Patna, May 13 (IANS): Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi on Wednesday urged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to avoid depending on the Centre and Indian pharmaceutical companies and purchase vaccines from foreign countries to inoculate the people of the state.

In a series of tweets in Hindi, Sushil Modi, who is currently a Rajya Sabha MP, said: "The Nitish Kumar government, instead of depending on the Narendra Modi government and domestic pharmaceutical companies, should initiate a process of global tender to buy vaccines from any country in the world."

Noting that the population of Bihar is above 11 crore and the state government will need crores of vaccines for the vaccination of people above 18 years old, he said: "The supply of crores of vaccines is not possible from Indian companies. Hence, there is only one remaining way to get vaccines - through global tender."

He pointed out that several states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, and Delhi are considering global tenders.

"Bihar government has an adequate fund of Rs 4,165 crore for the vaccination programme. It has already allocated Rs 1,000 crore for it. Why is the state government delaying it? Why is it waiting for domestic companies which cannot fulfil the demand despite starting production of vaccines day and night," he asked.